What’s stands out to me is that they create a bogus, blank ad and have the clickers actually responded to an inquiry on the ad asking why they clicked. They said out of curiosity. That means a significant portion of them noticed the unique ad, and actually took action. At least it confirms that distinct creative gets noticed.

Facebook’s making several moves into the search space. They certainly must be getting a lot of search traffic. Most interesting is that they’re allowing direct bidding against competitor pages and apps.

If you’ve every worked in fashion e-commerce, you know the potential impact this has. This could dramatically improve online shopping experience for consumers, and the profitability of it for retailers.

The biggest challenge with ROI is that it’s difficult to get accurate views of long term effects, and social media is a long term play. That’s why ROI calculations that use short term data often look less than convincing. But that certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t working.

There are some interesting stats in here on the percentages of Kickstarter projects that get launched on time (about 25% of their test market) or that launch within 8 months (75%). That may seem low, but it also seems like most projects backed by even large corporations frequently hit snags and delays. Given that Kickstarter projects are people with little business or operational experience, those numbers don’t seem that absurd.

A high level view of how two media giants are approaching the same issue. It’s interesting to note that while the Journal is emphasizing their ‘live’ video content, most of their views come from on-demand after the original content has been edited down and posted.

If you doubt the value of Facebook data, consider that NBC will be essentially devoting a chunk of their valuable media time to promote Facebook, in exchange for Facebook data around their Olympics broadcast.

More news that demonstrates the power of Facebook’s data. This approach is very badly needed, and also exposes the vulnerability of companies (like Apple), who in many ways continue to operate along traditional lines of communication.

The title’s in jest, as this is really a good overview for anyone. Few brands will do all of this, but I really like the timeline orientation of the various disciplines. It’s very much how online marketing should be viewed.

Great coverage by the NY Times of the launch of Huffington and the current state of magazine publishing. Killer line in this article: “Mr. Jobs may be gone, but he is still winning arguments.” A must read.

A long transcription of a podcast, also available via MP3. I’d go that route. There’s a lot of info, but I really like his push for the need to simplification. Here’s the interviewee, talking about Apple’s iPhone launch as an example of a successful content marketing strategy: “So, their strategy was minimize the amount of collateral we need to create. Create something that can hit multiple audiences for multiple intent, which then, of course, reduces downstream costs.”

It’s always interesting when David takes on Golliath. Here’s what David’s saying in this case: “We’ve found that digital platforms are much more cost-efficient in getting impressions,” said Mr. Martel “To try and compete with McDonald’s and massive broadcast marketers — we’re not going to win that game, so we have to fight a smarter fight. Relevance of message is clearly better achieved through digital and social, as well as the ability to have a conversation. … [You] can have folks give you immediate feedback,” he said.

This is impressive. Take any string of words and ‘translate’ it into the corresponding Google images. The link is to an example with Adele’s “Someone Like You”, but definitely click thru to the actual tool.

This is perhaps most incredible because it doesn’t require any additional apps or software. I also like how it takes something as simple and engaging as film and makes it an interactive experience in such a fluid way.

Interesting study. Of course, the marketer’s challenge is, How do you know what will work when all your posts are from the same source, mentioning the same brand, within the same product category. That’s the challenge for Facebook marketers.

This is sure to rev up the purists in the photojounalism ranks. Most interesting to me is the idea that an iPhone app that’s something of a fun toy is applied to photojournalism. Maybe the ultimate statement is that that’s how technically-advanced our mobile phone cameras have become. I have to wonder how many shots he’ll lose to blur, though.

If you’re not that familiar with the history of the banner and the click-thru rate (CTR) as it’s key metric, just know to be very careful with the metrics that get applied to marketing initiatives. The online banner industry is still suffering from people latching onto the CTR as the primary method for campaign evaluation, with no sign of change, despite numerous other (read: better) ways to measure campaign performance. Choose your metrics wisely.

I haven’t posted much about “the Internet of things” lately, but this is right up that alley. Many of these ideas are tied directly to smarter products. Also, note how as you scroll down the page, the background gradually changes. Nice visual touch.

Google gets a lot of flack for dropping the ball on social media, but they’re far from asleep, and making serious moves in other areas of advertising (areas, I might add, that are proven revenue generators).

More thoughts on the GM/Facebook issue. This article makes a lot of points, but what I find most interesting is that Facebook continues to spend significantly on Facebook content ($30m/year), and Facebook paid advertising is designed to help them leverage that content investment. I don’t see how dropping the paid media component fits with their long-term Facebook strategy, unless it’s simply a temporary regrouping to get their paid media strategy tighter.

This captures what I find to be one of the biggest question I come across regarding UX issues: At what point in the user’s product use cycle do you focus on. The early impression stage or the highly-experienced user.

Clearly GMs move wasn’t the last word on this issue. But what’s hidden in many of the articles I’ve read is that GM is still pouring a lot of money into Facebook content creation. They may have come in with a bad direct response mindset thinking they could spin Facebook ads into gold, but the fact that they’re still spending considerable sums on their Facebook pages content shows they aren’t anywhere near giving up on Facebook.

This really demonstrates the challenges so many large companies are having keeping up. Companies like Facebook are foregoing much of the typical legwork around acquisitions, playing things more from the gut. Of course, the story isn’t over yet, but in the meanwhile, with Facebook able to make large acquisitions like Instagram quickly, it’s making things difficult for their less-nimble competitors.

This app vs web story has been an interesting one, and as the article points out, it’s not shaking out the way either side thought. Another example of how lowering production and startup costs add constant forks in the pathway of technology.

Despite the relative recency of mass communications, it’s remarkable how cyclical they are. Mobile is following so many of the same routes Web 1.0 took. This article draws the parallels between online video content, and the early days of TV.